Basslexia, performed by Faniswa Yisa and Thembinkosi Mavimbela, sits deliberately and overtly at the intersection of Western and African understandings of music.

Mavimbela, representing Western music, approaches his double bass, donned in a full suit. Yisa, representing African music, sits off to the side of the stage. There is a lecture – a history of the instrument by Mavimbela – followed by a brief performance. Yisa, sceptical and reserved, approaches and begins to translate, both revising and parodying Mavimbela’s engagement with the instrument. This gives way to a moment of instruction, a rich and reflective scene of clashing style and interpretation. What emerges is a deviation, a reimagining of a single instrument approached through varying histories, methodologies and practices.

The resultant performance is a kind of exquisite tension – a union that refuses neat harmony and composition. It is a puzzling out of the disparities between knowledge and education, tradition and custodianship.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

CONCEPTUALISER | Thembinkosi Mavimbela
DIRECTOR | Nhlanhla Mahlangu
PERFORMERS | Thembinkosi Mavimbela & Faniswa Yisa